Before the Thea King (Hyperion)
and John Denman (Lyrita)
recordings of the Finzi clarinet concerto we had to rely on
BBC radio broadcasts. Both King and Angela Malsbury were
champions of the work in the early 1970s. Michael Collins won
Young Musician of the Year in 1979 with the Finzi concerto.
The Lyrita (LP) and Hyperion (LP then promptly onto CD) staples
followed shortly afterwards. Then came a succession of soloists
as the concerto surfed and fed the wave of the worldwide Finzi
revival. The concerto is now a Finzi ‘signature’ work encapsulating
the essence of this vividly melodic pastoral lyricist. In the
last two years here in the North-West of England I have heard
three performances of the concerto and I could have heard another
four with a fifth in St Helens in April. Finzi is now an easy-winner.

Stoltzman is an American performer and
his having taken up the Finzi was an important signal of acceptance
across the Atlantic. Many US music-lovers will have come to
know the Finzi through this CD now custom-reissued at mid-bargain
price by Arkiv.

Stoltzman came to the UK to make these
recordings and at the same time also had the distinction of
making the premiere recording of an orchestration of another
of Finzi's clarinet works, the Five Bagatelles. These
little essays do not have the substantive depth of the concerto
but they do capture aspects of Finzi's character in an immediately
entrancing way. Lawrence Ashmore, who also directs the Guildhall
Ensemble provides totally idiomatic and Finzi-faithful orchestrations
of the original piano accompaniments. Effectively he gives us
a Finzi suite for clarinet and orchestra.

Stoltzman in both the Concerto and the
Bagatelles tends to be rather dry-eyed. The dewy pastoralism
is left understated when compared with Johnson, Hacker,
King, Plane
or Marriner;
not that any of them gush. It's a matter of finer shades. Two
other things distinguish Stoltzman. He has miraculous technique
- breath control that seems to defy physical limitation. Also
his sound conveys the burred and grained woody tones of the
instrument more than any of the competition.

It is the Bagatelles that crystallise
comparisons. They're still not at all a common work even in
the Finzi boom - and certainly not in orchestrated form. The
only other recording of them is from 1997 by Robert Plane on
Naxos. Plane yields more to the shepherds' carol aspect and
also turns in a fine reading of the Clarinet Concerto. His is
a preferred choice if you prefer an all-Finzi recital. Naxos
fill out the disc with the composer's shorter orchestral pieces
including the ineffably beautiful Introit. Stoltzman
on the other hand gives us Lawrence Ashmore in a work called
The Four Seasons and in Greensleeves. The former
is an artful and imaginatively orchestrated fantasy through
which are threaded many traditional English tunes. It's pleasing
rather than totally compelling although I did think that the
chilly Winter section was extremely well done.

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